The Story The Exquisite Collection Single Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2018 is an $8.49 ALDI import exclusive. Marlborough is located on the Northwest tip of New Zealand’s South Island, most of the nationally distributed NZ Sauvignon Blanc comes from this region. There is a pecking order for the pricing of New Zealand Sauv Blancs. The…
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The Story The Burlwood Extra-Dry Sparkling Wine (ALDI) is a $4.99 non-vintage ALDI exclusive made for them by a winery located in Modesto, California. ALDI does not tell us what grapes are used, at $4.99 there is no money left over for niceties like technical sheets. But an under 5 buck Sparkling wine is probably judged…
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The Story The Giretto Pinot Grigio 2018 is a $5.49 ALDI exclusive sourced from the Dell Venezie region of Northeast Italy. The 2018 version of the Giretto seems to be something of an upgrade. Past vintages of this Pinot Grigio were designated IGP wines, while the 2018 is a DOC wine. An IGP wine in…
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The Francesco Toscana IGT Rosso 2015 is an ALDI $8.99 import exclusive. The ALDI website from Germany says this is a blend of Bordeaux grapes with a little Syrah added in to smooth things out. A Toscana IGT Rosso indicates that this is a Red (Rosso) wine from the whole of Tuscany (Italy) and not an…
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The Chiare’ Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine (Chiare’ is Italian for clear) is a $7.99 ALDI’s vintage dated Bubbly sourced from vineyards in Monterey, California. CWF reviewed the 2014 vintage (it was $6.99 then) and thought it was worth twice the price. ALDI must have showcased the 2014 in its advertisements, because we learned that vintage…
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The Dellara Cava Brut is a $6.99 ALDI Sparkling wine from somewhere in Spain. I say somewhere in Spain, since you would normally see (about 90% of the time) the Penedes DO or Catalonia (near Barcelona) on the label, but the Dellara simply says “Product of Spain“. It had the Cava stamp on the top of…
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In this special Halloween podcast episode, we get SCARY. Scary cheap that is! We check out ALDI Outlander Meritage 2016 – another bottle from the surging ALDI’s wine program. But does it taste scary? Listen in to find out!
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The LaRue Cotes de Provence Rosé 2017 is a $7.19 ALDI import exclusive, a blend of unspecified Red grapes grown in the Cotes de Provence AOP, the largest growing region in Provence, in the south of France. This bottle looks very much like ALDI’s Exquisite Collection Provence Rosé ($7.99) from about a year ago that got…
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The William Wright Monterey County Pinot Noir 2016 is a $8.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Salinas Valley of Monterey, California. William Wright is one of Scheid Vineyards (founded in the early 1970s) 40+ wine labels, Scheid owns 11 estate vineyards with 4,000 acres of vines. The back label says William Wright “produced and…
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The Trestoria Rose’ 2017 is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards in California, that’s it, the grape or grapes used and any info that narrows down where the grapes came from are sadly omitted. The back label says this Rose’ was produced by a company from Modesto, Ca. that seems to be related to E…
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The Broken Clouds Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2016 is a $12.99 ALDI exclusive. $12.99 is near the top of the price range for ALDI wine and the reason is that these grapes come from one of the best Pinot Noir growing areas in California. The Sonoma Coast is mostly smaller family owned vineyards and attached wineries…
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The Sienna Glen Chardonnay 2016 is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA and produced for ALDI by a winery located in Hopland, Ca. If you Google “Hopland Ca wineries” you can figure out who made the Sienna Glen. The back label says some of the wine saw…
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The Guild of Fermentation Fanatics Coonawarra Shiraz 2016 is a $8.99 ALDI import wine sourced from the Coonawarra region of the Limestone Coast district in southern central South Australia. The Guild of Fermentation Fanatics are the winemakers for Kingston Wine Estates of Australia who banded together to produce their own wine brand. This Shiraz (Shiraz and…
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The ALDI Exquisite Collection Mendoza Malbec 2016 is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Mendoza region located in the foothills of the Andes in central western Argentina. Mendoza is responsible for 75% of the wine being produced in Argentina. When you see Mendoza as the source location on the front wine label, that…
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The William Wright Artist Series Red Wine Blend 2015 is I believe a $9.99 ALDI exclusive, produced from 65% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Zinfandel, and 2% Syrah grown in vineyards in the Monterey AVA below San Francisco and inside the Central Coast AVA. William Wright wines are produced by Scheid Winery, Monterey, Ca. who produce…
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The Scarlet Path Lodi Zinfandel 2014 is a $7.99 ALDI exclusive. Lodi is south and east of Napa County with most of the vineyards planted in the Delta region which is a series of river valleys coming from the San Francisco Bay and ending at the Sierra Nevada foothills. This area is 100 miles inland and…
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The Insomnia Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 is sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape producing AVA, it was found at ALDI’s for $8.99, but I don’t think that it is exclusive to ALDI. It is a well-priced California Cabernet, but the main reason that it stands out on store shelves is the label. The label…
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The ALDI Exquisite Collection Cotes de Provence Rose’ 2016 is a $7.99 ALDI exclusive that is best known as the Rose’ that won a silver medal and the Best Wine Under $10 award at the International Wine Challenge blind tasting in England. ALDI’s wine has a very good reputation in Europe, so winning awards there is,…
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The Let’s Drink Chardonnay 2016 is an ALDI $6.99 import wine, sourced from vineyards in South Australia. South Australia is a huge growing region that produces about half of Australia’s wine output. The climates vary greatly, there are areas that reach over 100 degrees in the heat of summer to cool coastal regions. As a matter…
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The Adventure Series DOCG Chianti 2015 is an ALDI $4.99 import exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Chianti region of Tuscany, Italy. The main grape of Chianti is Sangiovese with a handful of local grapes allowed in the blend. Italy has rather strict control agencies for grape growing and wine production, the DOC and the DOCG…
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The Winking Owl Shiraz is a non-vintage $2.89 ALDI (checked the receipt and the bag of apples I purchased sold for 50 cents more than this bottle of wine) exclusive sourced by grapes grown in California. ALDI and Trader Joe’s are each owned by different branches of the same family and Winking Owl (Gallo) is ALDI’s version…
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The Dove Creek Monterey Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 seems to be a $11.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from estate grown grapes from 2 vineyards, one located in the San Lucas sub-AVA and the other in the Hames Valley sub-AVA of the Monterey AVA which is inside the Central Coast AVA of California. I say this seems to be an…
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The Crimson Roots Old Vines Zinfandel 2013 is a $9.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes grown in the Dry Creek Valley AVA of Sonoma County in Northern California ALDI is very good at hiding the actual producer of the wines they sell and rarely provide technical notes, so that I will come up with my own. Why are…
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The Benedetto Chianti DOCG 2015 is an ALDI $4.99 import exclusive. Benedetto translates to “blessed” in Italian and this Chianti is Sangiovese with maybe a little Canaiolo blended in from grapes grown in the Chianti region of Tuscany in Italy. If you are not familiar with Italian wine a DOC is approximately the same as…
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The Broken Clouds Chardonnay 2014 is an $8.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Sonoma Coast AVA north of San Francisco. Normally when checking the internet for information about an ALDI wine there is virtually nothing to be found, maybe a bottle shot and a vague sentence. But with the Broken Cloud wine, ALDI has vineyard photos…
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